Anything related to the design of integrated circuits (chips).
Questions tagged [chip-design]
96 questions
31
votes
4 answers
Why are most COB LEDs physically yellow?
Many "LEDs" found on devices nowadays appear to be yellow where the light comes from (when the device is off). Why yellow?
I put LEDs in quotes because COB leds can consist of many individual LEDs in an array/grid. In my example photo below, you can…
Bort
- 5,102
- 5
- 31
- 56
25
votes
3 answers
Why are chip designers called "triangle pushers"?
I heard chip designers being described as "triangle pushers," the idea being that somehow the logic on the chip was formulated by arranging triangles on the silicon in certain ways. How does this work? I don't understand how triangles can be…
Tyler Durden
- 2,186
- 4
- 34
- 49
24
votes
15 answers
Is there a theoretical possibility of having a full computer on a silicon wafer instead of a motherboard?
I have not seen a single reference where a whole computer is built inside a chip itself instead of modularizing and spreading it on a board.
I acknowledge that having modular parts enable versatility, but can big silicon companies such as Intel, AMD…
user0193
- 416
- 1
- 3
- 9
16
votes
2 answers
Why is silicon used to make microchips?
On my quest to better understand how computers work at a deep level I have come to the question of why, exactly, silicon is used in microchips. I always assumed, naively, that silicon had a very high electrical resistance and so it made a good…
Cole Rowland
- 181
- 1
- 1
- 5
10
votes
3 answers
How realistic is the famous "Bill sux" picture of a chip internals artwork?
There's an urban legend that some version of Intel Pentium chip had "Bill sux" caption somewhere on the circuit. The legend is accompanied with this picture:
Now let's assume for a moment that the legend is in fact true.
How realistic is the…
sharptooth
- 12,374
- 26
- 83
- 144
6
votes
2 answers
Why is this CMOS implementation of XOR wrong?
I'm working on a problem from an ETH Zurich course. They want you to build a transistor-level CMOS implementation of a XOR gate.
My attempt at this is the following:
The given answer is this:
Why is theirs so much more complex? I feel like I'm…
Connor
- 375
- 1
- 8
6
votes
4 answers
Why is the 8061 microcontroller described as having 256 bytes of internal memory?
According to doc (http://www.auto-diagnostics.info/pdf/ford_eectch98.pdf), this 8061 microprocessor chip contains 256bytes of internal
RAM (also referred to as register file in the doc). However, the only register file
named in this diagram is a…
Jt90
- 71
- 1
- 5
6
votes
1 answer
Why do standard cells typically have slower timing with high temperature, and faster timing with low temperature?
Threshhold voltage typically falls with increasing temperature, which would seem to indicate that high temperature operating conditions should result in faster gates than low temperature OCs. However, standard cells typically have slower timing with…
travisbartley
- 4,823
- 3
- 23
- 41
5
votes
1 answer
Why are photomasks so expensive?
I just read the answer to this question asking how much a custom ASIC costs. It says that
When it comes to making an ASIC, the cost of the masks is HUGE. It is not uncommon at all for a set of masks (8 layers, 35 to 50 nm) to run US$1 Million!
I'm…
user255334
5
votes
2 answers
Effective Address calculation time on 8086/8088
I've started designing an implementation of an 8088 from scratch with the goal of being cycle-exact. I can understand the reasoning behind the number of clock cycles for most instructions, however I must say I'm quite puzzled by the Effective…
Matthieu Wipliez
- 101
- 4
5
votes
4 answers
Why do microcontrollers have so many functionalities at once?
Being fairly new in the field of electronics, and being a computer scientist, it strikes me as a bit odd that almost every single microcontroller that I've come across thus far is fitted with:
Multiple timers, with multiple trigger…
Skeen
- 202
- 2
- 8
5
votes
1 answer
How is EMI avoided inside of an IC?
I was re-watching this video about how CPUs are made and at the time of the video the link points to, I thought "Isn't there some EMI problems with all those transistor signals flying all over the place?" Possibly some small amount of radiated…
Funkyguy
- 3,558
- 1
- 21
- 45
5
votes
2 answers
Why we gradually increase size of inverters in buffer design?
When trying to drive a high capacitive load why do we gradually increase size of inverters in buffer design. Why not give the output of a circuit to one large inverter?
user38315
- 146
- 1
- 2
- 7
4
votes
4 answers
What does the "side-band" and "in-band" mean in the context of digital circuit?
I read below content from the Intel On-chip System Fabric (IOSF) spec. AS I understand, the IOSF is a technology for chip reuse and interconnect.
The sideband message interface covers most communication that is not
sent using inband transactions…
smwikipedia
- 1,102
- 2
- 16
- 34
4
votes
2 answers
Kick-off Spread Spectrum Clocking
Need of SSC:
Spread spectrum clocking (SSC) is a special way to reduce the radiated emissions of digital clock signals. These levels or energy is radiated and therefore this is where a potential EMI issue arises.
Doubt:
Assume that SSC clock has…
Prakash Darji
- 697
- 6
- 16